Synonymous with adventure and home to the world's most exotic tribes, a trip to Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific is an anthropological tour de force: hundreds of distinct tribes speak 850 mutually unintelligible tongues. Barely post-Stone-Age agricultural practices, complex tribal liaisons, ancestor cults, and wild cultural celebrations make Papua New Guinea the last frontier of adventure travel.

It was while traveling in Papua New Guinea that UCLA professor Jared Diamond was asked by a local elder, “How is it that the white man has all the cargo?” His answer, 20 years in the making,

was published in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs and Steel, which explains gaps in power and technology between human societies as originating in environmental differences: that is, you can’t hitch a marsupial to a plow.

Any great Papua New Guinea tour will include attendance at a sing-sing (tribal festival). We recommend the famous Mt Hagen Sing-Sing, the obscure and authentic Tumbuna Sing-Sing and the Waghi Sing-Sing. Whichever you choose these incredible spectacles will be a highlight of your Papua New Guinea itinerary.

Papua New Guinea travel should also include a visit to a Huli Wigmen village to observe close-up the traditions of these wildly exotic and friendly people, who weave elaborate headdresses from human hair. You can also meet the Asaro Mudmen, the Sepik Crocodile People and dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct tribes on a trip to Papua New Guinea.

A Once in a Lifetime Experience!

"A belated note to wax on about our August trip to Papua New Guinea—to say it was a once in a lifetime experience is a gross understatement! The list of superlatives is long—everyone agreed that our tour leader Suzanne was possibly the nicest and brightest and funniest guide we'd ever come across—and that was one very well-traveled group of people."